Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

This novelwas very intriguing, disturbing and intense. It makes you question every move you make as a parent and look at all those tormented kids in high school with new open eyes.

Very Short Synopsis: A tormented 17 year old kid opens fire on his high school for 19 minutes after years of being bullied. The story follows his youth and his trial. The novel looks at the relationships between parent and child and different peer groups.

BUT... I would NOT recommend this book. It used the "f" word about 300 times and had several 'teen sex episodes.' I was looking for another novel by this author called My Sister's Keeper, but when the library did not have it in, I picked up this one. Picoult is a great writer and keeps you glued, but as someone who does not have a TV in my home and does not watch R rated movies, I was not prepared for the language and content.

The Rescue

This is the first Nicholas Sparks book I have ever read. He is also the author of A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, two of my favorite romance movies so I had high expectations as I began The Rescue. Late LDS Prophet, President Hinckley's wife once said when asked why her marriage was such a success, because she kept her expectations low. Maybe if that had been the case I would have liked this novel a little better.

The story itself was also just a little too dramatic and very predictable. The novel was fairly clean with the exception of a couple of intimate pages between two unweds. It seems like the story had far too many "special" moments. I love to love the characters and care about them, but I found the only characters that I loved were sub character Judy, the mom, and Kyle the 4 year old 'slow' son. I didn't care much for the two main characters.

Although I have to give it some credit, it made me cry once which says something about the authors ability to invoke some emotion.